Where Our Iron Ore Comes From. [Volume: 8, Issue: 3, 1889, pp. 195-200]

No. 3.1

CHARCOAL IRON WORKERS.

197

The Vermilion range also reached its largest output in 1888,
namely 511,953 tons, or an increase over 1887 of 117,701 tons,
and this range is credited with 10.1 per cent. of the total Lake
Superior product for last year. There are but two mining companies on the range, one of which contributed 457,000 odd tons
and the other 55,000 tons.
The figures herein given demonstrate the extent to which iron
ore mining has been carried in the Lake Superior region, and the
volume of ore handled is the more remarkable when the high
percentages of iron in the ores is considered. The greater portion of the ores mined are red hematites, varying from the soft to
the hard specular varieties, but some magnetites are obtained,
and in a few deposits the hydrated condition of the ore places
some of it in, or close to the limits of brown hematite. The distance from these mines to blast furnaces, and the expense of
transportation makes it necessary that a standard of quality
should be maintained which is above the requirements of most
of the other iron producing districts. This standard may be
considered as approximating a yield of sixty per cent. of iron
when dried at two hundred and twelve degrees, but many ores
exceed this requirement.
The Cornwall ore hanks, in Pennsylvania, contributed to the
supply of iron ore for the year 1888, 722,921 gross tons, an
amount greater than ever taken out in one year from this deposit, which has been operated for one hundred and fifty years
and produced an aggregate of 9,395,923 gross tons of iron ore.
The development of this property has naturally been stimulated by the advance in iron production, for the deposit had not
yielded a half million tons in any year until 1885, and 1879 was
the first year that over a quarter of a million tons were mined.
Within the past decade a total of 4,421,000 tons were obtained,
this is equivalent to nearly one-half of the aggregate output of
the Cornwall ore hills. The ease with which soft magnetites are
mined from the Cornwall ore hills and the convenience of the
deposit to fuel supply and to blast furnaces would permit of a
still greater output if efforts were made to distribute the ore over
a larger area than is now the case. It is, however, equitable in
comparing the Cornwall ore hills with the Lake Superior region
to note the fact that the ore which yields about the same per